BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing July 2017 E-magazine English | Page 9

JULY 2017
Pulling Down Or Pushing Up
Reasons For Disunity Among Those Who Minister
Guru Prasath, Missionary, Rajasthan
God has been raising several thousands of
workers from varied backgrounds and has been
placing them in different places for the extension of
His Kingdom. Yet, the frontiers of the Kingdom have
not expanded as much as we might have expected. In
fact, rather than expanding, the boundaries seem to
have stagnated, and even contracted in some areas.
One important reason for this is the disunity
among the children of God. God desires that His
children would be united in the task of extending His
Kingdom. The great commission to “Go and
proclaim to all creation” will be possible only when
we obey the second greatest commandment i.e., “to
love your neighbour as yourself”. Why has India
been unable to taste God's goodness even after 2000
years ? There is no other reason, except that God's
children have not been united.
Why is it that we have been unable to be of one
accord with our fellow workers and fellow believers?
Why are we unable to love t hem as we love
ourselves?
I want to list out a few reasons why there is
disunity among the brethren.
Jealousy
One reason for disunity is jealousy which raises
its ugly head. When we see another servant of God
more talented and more efficient than us, jealous
thoughts spring up and hatred creeps in. This is what
happened to king Saul. When David returned after
killing Goliath, the Philistine, people gathered
around and showered praises on him saying , “Saul
has slain his thousands and David his tens of
thousands.” When Saul saw that David had abilities
that seemed better than his, he was very angry and
“kept a jealous eye on David” (1 Sam 18: 8,9).
Even today, many of us in ministry are divided
because of jealousy and are unable to love those who
minister alongside us. Thus, we fail to function as a
unit. Envy rots the bones and becomes a stumbling
block to those who should be marching forward and
claiming new grounds for the Master. The chief
priests in Jesus' time exemplify this (Mt 27:17, Mk
15:9).
Fear
The second reason why we are unable to work
together with our coworkers is the element of 'fear'.
This fear is no ordinary fear. It is a fear which is
sometimes greater than the fear of death. This fear
stems out of our insecurity. It is the fear that causes
one to think, “ Will I be forgotten by others? Will they
forsake me and join someone else?” This fear arises
when we see the Lord using another person, just as he
is using us, or when someone else is being used
instead of us. Saul feared David because he knew that
David was chosen to be the next king and he knew
that David's actions were acceptable to God (1Sam
18: 15). Saul was not afraid that David would kill
him! Rather, he was afraid that people would respect
and love David more than him! He also feared that he
would be forgotten by the masses!(1Sam 18: 16).
This fear drove Saul to try and murder David. This is
the same fear that controlled the wisest man,
Solomon. When he knew that Jeroboam was chosen
to be king in his place, he could not take it and tried to
kill his own friend (1 Kings 11: 37,40). “Will I lose it
? Will I be forgotten?” Fear arising from these
thoughts is stronger than the fear of death.
Bitterness
The third reason for our failure to work in
unison is harbouring bitterness. When our co-worker
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